Kasich’s actual staff costs FAR exceed his claims

In early April John Kasich sent his budget and staffing numbers to the Ohio House of Representatives. According to the document prepared by Kasich’s team, the Governor’s office currently has 67 people on staff, 37 being paid by the Governor’s office budget and 30 paid by agencies. And they plan to hire a maximum of 75 people and spend a total of $4,838,121 per year on staff salaries.

The document also compares Kasich’s staff count and salaries to the previous Governor. Kasich’s team claims their staff numbers and staff salary totals are lower than Strickland’s, who had 79 employees at a total cost of $5,009,431. We decided to check Kasich’s math.

Based on an analysis conducted by Plunderbund, the budget numbers Kasich released to the Ohio Legislature are strikingly different than the numbers we found. Not only are there many more state employees reporting to the Governor’s office than Kasich claimed, but the total spent on staff salaries FAR exceeds the numbers provided by Kasich and that of the previous Governor’s office.

Starting with a list of all Governor’s office email addresses provided to Plunderbund (which gave us 99 names), we removed 2 Troopers from the list and 7 other people who were not actively receiving a salary as of the last payroll. Our resulting list left us with 90 people – which is 11 people more than the maximum number of employees Governor Strickland had, 15 higher than Kasich’s total expected number and 23 people more than he claims to have working for him right now.

We then compared the staff list against the state salary database ended up with a total cost of $5,995,961 – which is nearly one million dollars more than Strickland spent on his staff salaries. The following chart shows the difference between Kasich’s claims and the actual counts/sums we derived from analyzing the data.

Our analysis shows that Kasich’s actual salary spending is $1,694,874 higher than he claims, and $986,530 more than Strickland. And almost all of these people – 50 in total – have been hidden at agencies to avoid having them show up on Kasich’s budget.

Here’s the breakdown of which agency is paying Kasich’s staff:

ODJFS seems to be burdened with an unusually large number (10) of Kasich staffers, many of whom seem to be working on the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Insurance comes in second with 8 Governor’s Office employees, including LG Mary Taylor. And the rest are spread out across OBM, Commerce, Development and DAS – with a few stashed at other agencies as well.

We are all used to Kasich and his team not telling the truth to the public, but they usually have some creative answer that lets them slither out from under their lies. This time it’s not going to be so easy.

Kasich says he only has 67 staffers but he actually has at least 90 state employees directly reporting to him. Kasich claims he’s saving the state $171K in salary costs when he’s actually spending nearly a million dollars more each year.

These aren’t just mistakes or misstatements made in a press conference. These are outright lies coming directly from the Governor’s office.

Kasich claims we all need to make sacrifices to help get the state out from under its budget deficit but he again shows that sacrifice – and the truth – only seem to apply to the rest of us.

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Here are the documents mentioned above. Please contact me via email if you are interested in more detailed spreadsheets.

What the hell is democrat info? Oh you mean actually taking government documents and showing you? Let him move forward? The rate he’s going we won’t be the state of Ohio any more. Just the Corporation of Ohio. If you want to give blow jobs, go find Newt Gingrich. I heard he loves them more than Clinton.

APG

“Democrat info” = “Information it would be politically inconvenient for me to believe.”

Victoria

I’d like to know more about what you are finding at ODJFS. Since that agency is partially federally funded, some employees there are under the Hatch Act and cannot be politicals, even in unclassified positions. When I was there, which was long ago when it was just OBES, but it would still hold, the feds limited the number of political appointments the agency was allowed to have. Anyone paid with federal dollars was slightly different than those paid with state funds. If he is in same way scammng with federal bucks–time to file a complaint with the Department of Labor or HHS. When I was at OBES only 10 people were designated as politicals–and only two of them were likely considered governor’s payroll folks. Ten sounds way to high for a federally funded agency. You have a facebook poster that used to work there, and recently. I will be interested to see any comments she has.

Victoria

I’d like to know more about what you are finding at ODJFS. Since that agency is partially federally funded, some employees there are under the Hatch Act and cannot be politicals, even in unclassified positions. When I was there, which was long ago when it was just OBES, but it would still hold, the feds limited the number of political appointments the agency was allowed to have. Anyone paid with federal dollars was slightly different than those paid with state funds. If he is in same way scammng with federal bucks–time to file a complaint with the Department of Labor or HHS. When I was at OBES only 10 people were designated as politicals–and only two of them were likely considered governor’s payroll folks. Ten sounds way to high for a federally funded agency. You have a facebook poster that used to work there, and recently. I will be interested to see any comments she has.

Victoria

This comment is lame. It is unlikely anyone who posts here voted for Kasich–I sure did not. (I mean except I guess you) Your post sounds kind of like a threat–what’s up with that? Kasich is the most dishonest and destructive politician in the history of the state, and people, including this site will expose him. He has violated the Ohio Constitution more in four months than other governors have in 8 years. If you don’t like people exposing his dishonesty, don’t come here.

publichealthgirl

I love how facts, figures, and verifiable numbers are now considered “democrat info.” I am sorry, but that is one of my problems with many (not all) conservatives. Factual information should not be partisan. Factual information should be embraced by people of all political beliefs. Politicians who are lying about their numbers and their true agenda should be held accountable by people of any political persuasion. He’s lying to all of us, whether you are a democrat, a republican, or an independent. Why should it matter what side of the political fence he is on? His corrupt policies are harmful to all of us. And for the record, I have seen many republicans on this site who very much regret voting for Kasich. I truly think his lies and manipulations are enough for people to overlook party loyalty.

leeseh

Tell ’em Victoria!

Anonymous

Why doesn’t this surprise me? Typical Kasich: through a bunch of figures together on a page and hope that no one reads it. Kasich is not interested in the future of Ohio; the only thing he’s interested in is to sell off the state one department at a time. He must be one of the biggest players on Half Price dot COM. He doesn’t need four years, he will have us all living on the street before the next snow falls.

Anonymous

I think you stumbled onto this web site in error; clearly you are looking for the “Friends of Kasich” web site. It has a much smaller following, so your comments will carry much more weight with them. Good luck and happy landings.

Harbertjr

You guys are doing well when the far right idiots begin posting on your site. Keep up the good work!

Mister G

The information listing all employees still lists Mark Kvamme at $0.00 and yet does not list his successor ODOD Head James Leftwich (who was appointed 03/28/2011) who is making a reported $134,000 approx. So add that $134,000 to the list, too.

Another thing, it does not seem reasonable that any Governor’s employees receive compensation in excess of the Governor and yet two are listed as being rewarded as such.

And finally, two weeks ago a story came out where Kasich’s office estimated savings to the budget with the passage of SB5 was acknowledge by his spokesperson to contain faulty data because in the words of his spokesperson, “if they worked to calculate the actual figure it would have taken many more months to enact this change.”

Kasich and his office have acknowledged they provide the citizens with mis-truths and outright lies and because we are mostly like lemmings we sit and take it.

Leftwhich heads the DOD, he doesn’t work in Kasich’s office. But when Kvamme was shown to be ineligible to be a cabinet member because he’s unqualified to be an Ohio voter, Kasich moved him to his office.

Surprisingly, Kasich does pay his chief of staff Beth Hansen more than his own salary – which is defined by state law.

Leftwhich heads the DOD, he doesn’t work in Kasich’s office. But when Kvamme was shown to be ineligible to be a cabinet member because he’s unqualified to be an Ohio voter, Kasich moved him to his office.

Surprisingly, Kasich does pay his chief of staff Beth Hansen more than his own salary – which is defined by state law.

Leftwhich heads the DOD, he doesn’t work in Kasich’s office. But when Kvamme was shown to be ineligible to be a cabinet member because he’s unqualified to be an Ohio voter, Kasich moved him to his office.

Surprisingly, Kasich does pay his chief of staff Beth Hansen more than his own salary – which is defined by state law.

Leftwhich heads the DOD, he doesn’t work in Kasich’s office. But when Kvamme was shown to be ineligible to be a cabinet member because he’s unqualified to be an Ohio voter, Kasich moved him to his office.

Surprisingly, Kasich does pay his chief of staff Beth Hansen more than his own salary – which is defined by state law.

amyvav

As far as I understand, we won’t have to vote him out. He made it clear from the beginning that he was only running for one term. How much more obvious can it be that he is determined to pillage and plunder, leave any remaining spoils for his corporate buddies and head off to his next adventure. If anyone is still supporting him only due to party affiliation, they had better jump ship fast. Otherwise, Godspeed to you – you’re gonna need it!

guest

Right on V, you go get ’em girl.

Pratt

There is no proof here at all. Just your word that your list is accurate. Your lemmings here might lap it up and retweet it as fact, but its been three days, and no REAL news organization is touching these fudged numbers.

Let me know when you have someone independent backing up your numbers.

And do you seriously think something isn’t true just because it isn’t printed in the Dispatch?

Pratt

Joseph, a list of email addresses doesn’t prove anything.

Modern, you have no documentation to prove that you AREN’T lying.

Did Perkins give you a list of the governors staff? No.
Did she give you an org chart showing who reports to the governor? No.
You have… a list of email addresses that means nothing one way or the other.

Your analysis also doesn’t contain a single independent source.

Furthermore, you yourself admit that Kasich’s list was also released to the legislature. If Kasich lied to the legislature, wouldn’t the Democrats be all over it?

If you’re analysis is correct, why aren’t they calling for an investigation? Where is Redfern? Is he bringing this up?

If you’re analysis is right, then Kasich lied not only to the legislature, but just about every Ohio media outlet.

So what you want us to believe… is that Kasich knowingly provided a fraudulent document to the press, which the press covered. But now that they know “the truth”, they aren’t interested in nailing him for it.

Answer: you’re analysis is bogus. And the Ohio media know it.

Anonymous

Nick, give my best to Kyle Sisk and the rest of the Larry Householder “gang.”

You’ve made a reckless accusation without no proof. None. Instead, you insist that we prove a negative.

I don’t have any documents except a list of all of the Governor’s employees e-mail addresses, which is about the best way to ask for a record. They’re not required (and won’t) create a record in response. This e-mail list was in response to a very specific request and was responded by one of the Governor’s lawyers, who, even we would presume is competent to understand our request. She provided us with a a document the Administration keeps of emai addresses of their employees. We then checked the payroll records, which, again, are public record. Those records showed a number of employees, although presented as working in the Governor’s office, none the less have their salaries covered by other agencies’ budget.

FOR EXAMPLE, we know that Jai Chabria is being paid a starting salary of $145,000, which is more than the Governor’s own salary as set by statute. We know that his title is “Special Assistant to the Governor.” AND we also know from the last link I just provided to you that his pay is drawn from the payroll budget of the Department of Commerce, NOT the Governor’s office. So when the Governor’s office submits to the media and the legislature a document about their payroll, we KNOW that it omits high salary folks like Chabria.

So, yeah, we kind of know what we’re talking about because their own documents disprove their own claim. Now, where’s your evidence suggesting otherwise?

Anonymous

You’re not trying to prove anything? You’re trying to claim we’re lying. That’s an accusation in which you carry the burden to prove since it’s YOUR claim.

On the one hand, you claim there’s no evidence that Kasich has been playing games with his staff salary figures, but then you freely admit that, yeah, we all know how they’re hiding Chabria’s salary in Commerce as opposed to the Governor’s office. Pick a story and stick to it. Because you just conceded your point.

Why would they have any doubt? Because you questioned us, we pointed out the documentation trail, you pointed out nothing in response. You say taking the Administration’s own staffers email list reveals more employees than they ‘ve publicly acknowledged is a leap of faith because… you don’t think Joseph can count email addresses accurately?

You wanna say we’re wrong or misusing the data, call up the DAS and ask specifically for a copy of Joseph’s request (it, now, too is a public record) and anything the DAS supplied him. Do what he says he did and tell us if you find anything dei differently.

But obviously you’re concerned about this story and us because you’re here with no proof trying to suggest we’re lying even though you admit you have nothing to present to contradict what we’re saying.

Promise me tomorrow, should change his name to no promise there will be tomorrow. That is what Gov. Johnny Wall Street has planned. The united Fascist State, brought to you by Govs. Walker, Kasich, Snyder and Scott. State, brought to you by Govs. Walker, Kasich, Snyder and Scott.

Truthseeker

Tried to warn everyone about this piece of garbage but all of the haters and racists voted for him and look at the truth coming out. Like he said “YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ANYTHING YET”.

Truthseeker

Tried to warn everyone about this piece of garbage but all of the haters and racists voted for him and look at the truth coming out. Like he said “YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ANYTHING YET”.